Project 12: Abused
(Group Project: Ben Pender, Lizzie Reed, Chiara Bianchini)
This weeks project was focusing on the abuse of the corporate and social responsibilities that people have over others. We decided to direct our attention to the loan company 'Wonga.com' who only just operate within the boundaries of the law, providing money just like loan sharks, charging extortionate rates on the money they give out. Their advertising is directed at people needing a quick fix of money due to an unfortunate financial situation they are in. Without bothering to check whether or not their costumers are in any way able to pay back the money, they force their customers into further debt, in the hope they will have to borrow more money. This starts a downward cycle of financial troubles, which are rarely avoidable. It's disgraceful really... but it just makes for a better project.
We wanted to give people the same feeling of excitement at the prospect of a deal too good to be true, quickly followed by the dread of knowing you are in a far worse position than you were before the deal. We presented ourselves as representatives of Wonga.com, with big smiling faces talking about all the 'good things' we do at Wonga. We handed out sweets to everyone in the audience to enjoy while we continued talking. Things soon took a more serious turn as we finally asked if anyone had read the small print before eating their sweets. The reply was expectantly 'no'. As we directed peoples eyes to the almost invisible small print on the board reading "*Wonga.com sweets may contain laxatives" peoples faces dropped. Anxious of the forthcoming bowl movements, we reassured people that unlike Wonga, we had actually made our own toilet paper to clean up the shit they leave you with. As a further piece of communication we installed posters in the toilet cubicles that outlined the abusive nature Wonga.com and similar loan companies.
